MERKEL! YOU MADE IT, YOU MEND IT!

Frederick Forsyth, political commentator and author, has lambasted German Chancellor, Angela Merkel in an open letter published in the Express. His beef is her decision to side with French President, Nicolas Sarkozy in support of a tax on all financial transactions. I’m not convinced this tax will even get off the ground, considering how complex, not to mention Herculean it... Read More

Occupy London continues sit-in outside St Pauls

Occupy Wall Street has spread across the Atlantic to the City of London. Protesters are settling in for a third night in the shadow of St Pauls to vent their frustrations over large corporations’ part in the economic crisis. They plan to stay "indefinitely". The demonstrators had planned to occupy Paternoster Square, where the London Stock Exchange is based but were... Read More

Capitalism: With The Ups Comes The Downs

Greek contagion is spreading across the Atlantic. Not in the form of widening yield spreads and plunging bank stocks but in the form of protests. On Saturday, a splinter group of Occupy Wall Street, Occupy LA gathered outside City hall. Their beef? Bank bailouts, bonuses and unemployment. They are "the 99%": those that will "no longer tolerate the greed... Read More

Antonio: King of the water dogs

My mother and father live in a beautiful white village in the hills of Southern Spain. Every couple of months I leave hectic London behind and hop on a plane to blue skies, rioja and sunshine.  As soon as I arrive I regress into childhood, happily clambering into the back of the car with the family dog and tagging along on one of my parents’ adventures into the... Read More

Greece: A default by any other name

A few days ago I asked why we weren’t calling the Greco-Franco Greek debt restructure a default. And then, S&P announced that if the German and French banks were to proceed with the Greek debt restructure this would amount to a ‘selective default’. The announcement came as S&P downgraded Greek debt from B to CCC, a notch above default status. Christine... Read More

The future of the eurozone – an interview with Megan Greene

Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain: a few years ago you’d have thought this was just a list of Easyjet destinations. But now the PIGS nations are synonymous with big bailouts and budget deficits and the future of the entire eurozone hangs in the balance. Recently, I spoke to economist Megan Greene about the situation in Europe and asked her how much the UK should be involved.... Read More

Megan Greene: Politics will cause the euro zone to break up

Politics will cause the euro zone to break up, says Megan Greene With persistent imbalances within the euro area and the inevitable restructuring of Greek, Irish and Portuguese debt, there are two possible endgames for the euro crisis: fiscal union or euro zone break-up. I think the euro is in the process of dying a slow death. Fiscal union or break up Fiscal union, which involves... Read More

Stefanie Powers: Women should wise up with their cash

A few weeks ago I met star of stage and screen, Stefanie Powers, at an event organised by the Women in Film and Television. I try to get to as many WFTV events as I can but as a hushed silence descended on the packed crowd I realised I was out of my depth: I had absolutely no idea who Stefanie Powers was. I can sense some eyes rolling at this point but in my defence,... Read More

Record Amounts Pumped Into Funds And ISAs

The public pumped record-breaking amounts into investment funds and ISAs in February, according to new figures. Ginny Broad from the IMA told Sky News that investments have been increasing dramatically since 2009. "Figures have been at a high level for the last 12 months hitting the £2bn mark in April of last year," she said. Ms Broad added that it may be a result... Read More

Deal For New Ground Zero Skyscrapers

A deal to finance the rebuilding of New York’s World Trade Centre site has been agreed and will lead to new skyscrapers at Ground Zero. Ground Zero on anniversary of 9/11 in 2009 Ground Zero is to be built at street level The agreement ends 16-months of wrangling between the port authority, the state of New York and developer Larry Silverstein. Mr Silverstein signed a... Read More